Ordeals of a yokai
by lumenatrum
Summary: AU Based off of the Naruto pilot. Naruto's mission was simple to find a friend he could trust. But between other yokai, crime bosses, and other obstacles the mission became more complicated. May have paring later. Finally updated
1. That first foot out the door

A re-load of Ordeals of a Yokai ch1.

To those who have read ch 1 of this before, DISREGARD. Thank you. To sum up my reasons, the first chapter was a craptastic bomb that made me wince at it's very thought. That should be enough of a reason for anybody. I won't leave anything close to the first chapter up because

A) It was short (not including the summary of the original chapter of Naruto)

B) It was vague, the detail sucked. And finally...

C) I hated it as soon as I reread it after the post

Disclamer: I don't own the pilot chapter of Naruto. By writing this I do not claim ownership of Naruto, the series or pilot chapter. This is merely a fanmade work.

_**Attention**__**:**_ This one fanfiction is based off of the original pilot chapter of Naruto. I will not do a summary because I only want you to be familiar with the pilot chapter. So go onto google or some other search engine and type in _Naruto pilot_. It is a good short story.

Here is how the first chapter should have been, to a degree.

* * *

That First Foot Out the Door

A man walked to his house, a bag of groceries in his hand. The bag, paper, rustled in his arms and its insides clunking together as he walked down the street. It was pleasing to him to have to walk to and from places, as he got to take in the surroundings and breath the air. Though the air was not that fresh because of all the cars, it more pleasing than the air in his stuffy apartment.

He passed a gang of kids playing outside, laughing and absorbed into their little game. Passing by he didn't know exactly what the kids were doing but it was obviously some game of imagination. It didn't really matter to him, whatever kids did made him smile and laugh. One of the children bumped into him yelling, "Beat all enemy ninja!" and accidentally made him drop his bag of groceries. The kid paused for a second to apologize before another kid ran up saying, "A ninja never leaves himself open!" and hit the kid with a marble.

The assaulting child proclaimed the other dead, but the other one denied it by saying he was in time-out because he was apologizing to the man. The attacking kid told him that he didn't call "times" and proceeded to throw another marble, hitting the other on the head. The kid who had bumped into the man started to chase after the other child, the other calling out, "Head shot! Head shot! Your dead! Stop it! Mommy!"

The man watched as the kids ran off to the rest of their friends. He sighed with a small smile on his face as he kneeled down to pick up his fallen groceries. He was lucky he had not bought anything like eggs. One by one he picked up his groceries, before one more was left on the ground. He paused as he reached down for the last item. A cup of instant ramen.

This time with an exasperated sigh, the man picked up the cup ramen and made his way back to his home.

He reached the door to his apartment, the groceries heavy in his arm from walking from the market to his home. He reached out his hand to open the door, fully expecting a clean home with the light scent of paint and charcoal dust. He turned the knob of the last obstruction between him and home.

* * *

The man walked into the front room of his apartment, finding that the floor was still not clean from earlier. He turned his head to the pre-teen he had asked to do the job earlier, who was sitting inverted on the couch watching T.V.. The blonde pre-teen had a bag of chips next to him, which he pulled a handful of at a time and stuffed into his mouth. The kid seemed to not notice the man in the doorway, his attention focused directly on the box of flashing lights in front of him, periodically switching between channels.

The man looked around at the dirty apartment, most of the mess centered around the couch. The man looked at the blonde and cleared his throat. The blonde looked at the man for nothing more than a second before saying, "Ah, hey Kuroda-san!" The blonde then flipped off the couch, landing feet first on the floor. He walked up to the man and asked, "What did you get for me?" with a big smile on his face.

Kuroda's lips pursed into a frown and he glared at the boy, seeing if he would pick up on the sign. The boy looked anxiously, waiting for the answer, the smile dropping a bit in waiting. The message not getting across, Kuroda decided just say it, "You were supposed to clean up while I was out. Remember Naruto?" The blonde boy's, Naruto's, expression drooped and formed a frown, equal to that of Kuroda's. Naruto stared down Kuroda for a moment before speaking just above a whisper, loud enough for the man to hear him. "You are going to give me what you have in the bag old man." Naruto said with a glare. Kuroda's frown turned into an arrogant smile as he stared down the blonde and said, "Try it."

Naruto took the challenge and pounced on the older man. The pre-teen, having the strength of just that, would not have been able to move the older man, though that was not what he planned. To not offset his balance Kuroda quickly set down the bag and prepared to take the child's assault. Suddenly Naruto transformed in midair, turning into a monkey with a fox tail.- The monkey landed on the man's chest and kicked off onto the ground, heading for the bag. Kuroda seen Naruto's plan and made a break to get to the grocery bag. The monkey, being more agile that the older man quickly grabbed the bag before the man. The monkey started rummaging through the bag when Kuroda picked it up by its foxtail. The monkey screeched and squirmed as Kuroda held its tail. Kuroda chuckled at the little guy and was about to scold him, but he failed to notice the can of tomato soup that was previously in the monkey's hands that was now making its way to his face. The can smacked Kuroda in the face, making his head jerk to the side. To break the bond on his tail, Naruto bit Kuroda's hand with his monkey teeth. Kuroda dropped the monkey, which made a quick process of rummaging through the bag and taking the ramen cup.

The monkey ran to the couch and turned back into Naruto's original form. Naruto looked at the ramen cup's label finding that the flavor was chicken. Naruto's mood fell suddenly and he looked toward Kuroda. The man was still holding his hand. Kuroda gave a nasty glare to Naruto, who didn't mind and gave a glare of his own. "You got me chicken? I told you that my favorite was pork! How hard is it to get pork flavored cup ramen?" Naruto scolded Kuroda, who received it as all adult men would receive a scolding from a child. "You little brat! I did something nice for you and I get a can thrown at my face, bit, and some condescending lecture, all by some kid!" Kuroda yelled out, loud enough for Naruto to press his hands against his ears. Kuroda walked up to Naruto, some anger dissipated enough to stop yelling, and continued, "What's more you don't deserve it in a bit, as you didn't do the one thing that I asked you!" Kuroda gestured around the room to let his scolding sink in.

Naruto sat looking at him for a second before finally saying, "I'm sorry." and going back to watching T.V.. Kuroda sighed and left it, there would be no use in arguing with the kid. He picked up the bag and the lone can of soup on the floor and made his way to the kitchen.

As he was putting away the food he heard Naruto calling out to him, "Kuroda? How far is the grocery store?" Kuroda looked back at the kid, who held a questioning gaze. Kuroda scratched the back of his head in thought, "Hmm, I don't know... about four blocks, not a long walk at all." Kuroda told Naruto this as he hoped the boy would leave. The boy hadn't left the house in a week and a half, since he first started staying there.

The boy stared off to nowhere as he said, "Well then I guess you shouldn't complain about having to go back there."

Naruto heard what sounded like an entire cabinet of canned food falling to the ground. His eyes were not pried away from the T.V. If he decided to take notice then he would not have been surprised when someone picked him up by his collar.

"You little brat!" came Kuroda's voice to Naruto's ear. Naruto squirmed and moved as much as he could, but to no avail, he was still stuck suspended by the man. Kuroda started to yell again, "If you want that damned ramen so much, you go and get it!" The man started to shake Naruto around while he yelled, hoping to get the message across. The seeming flawed reasoning proved to have some hold as Naruto started to plead. "Okay! Okay! Put me down and I will get it!"

Kuroda then, 'accidentally', dropped Naruto on the floor. The thud made by the blonde falling on the ground made him glad that he lived on the bottom floor. Naruto got up and wiped the chip crumbs off of his coat. He then walked to and out of the door, but not before calling Kuroda a dirty old bastard.

Kuroda stared at the door for a second before sighing. Kuroda then walked back to the kitchen to pick up the cans on the floor.

If he didn't know better, Kuroda would have guessed that he was going through having a college roommate again. Naruto acted like that and more, as this was only little more than a week with the blonde fox spirit. There was at least a month's wait before you realize all the crap that your roommate puts you through. Naruto took all the hot water during a shower, bugged him while he painted, put more food away than a garbage truck, and, if the boy would get out, probably would bring home all the women in the city and party all night. If the last two happened at all then it would be college all over again.

Secluded Kuroda would complain while 'life of the party' Saburo decides that his goal in college would be to be the virginity thief. _Little bastard_, thought Kuroda. He then blinked, not knowing if he was talking about Naruto or Saburo anymore. Kuroda decided he was talking about Naruto as talking like that about a dead man would be wrong, even if it was true.

When Kuroda finally got all the cans put away, he went to the living room closet and got out a vacuum, sighing. He had vowed to make Naruto do it, as it was his mess, but here he was, cleaning his mess. Just like college. Kuroda shook his head, not wanting to go over that again in his mind. At any rate, chip crumbs were better to clean up than panties after the 'drink 'till you piss' game. Kuroda shuddered, bad memories.

While Kuroda ran the vacuum back and froth, he reminisced on Naruto's behavior after coming to stay. He had allowed the boy to stay since Naruto didn't know anybody in the city except him, and it was far better than sleeping outside or in one of the seedy motels, which were worse than sleeping outside. One only needed to open a newspaper on any day of the week to know how bad they were.

But since day one, Naruto refused to go outside. He was working against his goal of bringing a friend to the mountains. Kuroda was working too hard so he couldn't go, and if things continued as they had, 'friend' would hardly be the word he would use to describe Naruto.

Finally the living room was done, the carpet around the couch actually visible. Kuroda looked at the couch itself to see that the couch was covered in crumbs of it's own. Kuroda cleaned that with an attachment on his vacuum. Finally the heavy mess was cleaned up. The only thing now was how stale the air was. The boy seemed to like his privacy, as the windows and their blinds were all closed. Kuroda opened all of them, even the door for good measure.

Finally with time to relax, Kuroda went to his little corner in the living room. His art corner. He sat on the stool before his easel, a half painted still life on it. He reached for his paint and pallet, only an arm's length away. He only had the colors red, blue, yellow, and white. But one could get any color they wanted by mixing these colors, even black. After getting all the colors he needed on the pallet, Kuroda looked at his subject, a purple jar and a yellow bowl. He hummed as he painted, enjoying the time. Naruto didn't get his fascination with painting, something Kuroda couldn't even explain. All he could say is that it wasn't a spectator's activity.

Speaking of Naruto, the boy wasn't back yet. In fact, as he thought about it, the boy didn't have any money to buy the ramen. He left in such a huff he didn't remember that the cup would cost him money. Kuroda chuckled to himself; the little brat deserved it. He probably took so long because he was too embarrassed to admit his mistake. _Well, it is time without him_, Kuroda thought.

Kuroda continued to paint as a fly started to buzz around him. It started to fly around his face, almost deliberately. No matter how many times he would wave the thing off it would keep coming back. The fly probably came from the open door. To prevent more of them from coming in, Kuroda walked to the door to close it.

Just as he was about to get to the door, a cheetah ran swiftly through it, scaring Kuroda into an inch of his life. The cheetah came to a hard stop in the house, crashing into the wall opposite the door. The big cat's folly didn't do anything to ease Kuroda's fright of it. He pushed himself up the wall behind him, not thinking of escaping through the door just to his side. The cheetah got up and looked around the room, flicking its foxtail.

It took the cheetah to look directly at him, with a cup of ramen in its mouth, for Kuroda to realize just what he was looking at. Fear ebbed away, giving way to anger. "You little bastard! You realize you scared the living hell out of me?" Kuroda yelled directly at the cheetah. The cheetah, still looking at him, closed its eyes and its mouth curved into a smile.

Naruto replaced the cheetah, a smile illuminating his face. The cup of ramen was still right there in his mouth. He took it out and said, "Well, I needed some way to get my ramen for free then run away from the store owner."

"You mean you stole that?" Kuroda asked, though he knew the answer. Naruto tossed the ramen form one hand to the other as he said condescendingly, "Well, somebody forgot to give me money for it." It was obvious that the blonde blamed the theft on Kuroda. Kuroda told himself that he should have guessed the boy would try to blame him.

Then a thought crossed Kuroda's head. "You transformed in front of some people?" Naruto only gazed at the man questioningly before saying, "You think I am an idiot? No, I came in as a cheetah, left as a cheetah. ' Chose that because they run so fast." Naruto rubbed his head as he looked back to the wall. "Too fast." he commented to himself. He shook his head and looked back to Kuroda, "They weren't able to follow me. A mob of people, all for a little ramen. Either this is special ramen, what I am hoping, or they over reacted."

"I'd over react if a cheetah ran into my store and took some ramen." Kuroda said, trying to get the boy to feel guilty. It didn't work. "I didn't run in! What do you think; I wanted to scare every one? I just walked in, as normally as possible." Kuroda started to massage his temple.

"You mean as normally as a cheetah could." he said.

"Yeah, I mean cheetahs are everywhere right?" Naruto said; his arms crossed definitively.

"You were watching T.V. all day, right?" Kuroda said as he rubbed his head with more force.

"Yeah. That is where I got the idea. That animal channel was talking about them and how fast they run." Naruto said, nodding his head.

"They didn't talk about where cheetahs are located?" Kuroda asked gritting his teeth.

"Nah, that was after the commercial, but I couldn't wait since I was bored, so I changed the channel." Naruto ended, his teeth flashing behind his smile.

Kuroda was about to yell, but decided against it. The kid made a mistake, a big mistake, but a mistake, nonetheless. "Cheetahs are a continent across form us. They are only there." Kuroda said slowly, hoping the boy would pick up on it. Naruto seemed unaffected by it. He only answered to that with, "Well, at least there won't be a cheetah to take the punishment for me."

Naruto walked to the bathroom, but before entering he looked back and said, "I going to take a shower, I'm exhausted since the owner of that market chased me around. ' Never knew that someone could go that fast on a bike. I want that ramen cooked by the time I come out." With that Naruto threw the ramen into Kuroda's hands and closed the door behind him. Kuroda, who caught the ramen cup, stared at the bathroom door with about as much admiration as an office grunt that looked at the man who took his cushy promotion.

Still, like a grunt, he turned to make the ramen. He still had the dignity to say out loud, "I have more than enough time."

* * *

Naruto came out of the bathroom with a billow of steam following him out. A towel hung tastefully from his waist. Before entering his room to get a change of clothes, Naruto yelled to Kuroda, "That ramen better be done!" Before he closed his door, Naruto heard Kuroda groan.

After a short time (A/N why should I explain the dressing process to you?), Naruto came out with his trademark coat, the third one since he came, and orange pants. "Alright," he yelled out, "where is my ramen?" Kuroda, who stared at the T.V. with a defeated look, merely pointed a lax finger to the kitchen. Naruto ran into the kitchen and grabbed the cup ramen. After taking the lid off, he unceremoniously ate the noodles as if he was drinking a cup of water. A cup of water a friend dared him to chug.

Naruto savored the taste of the ramen juice on his tongue. He gave a contented sigh. Though the ramen was a little cold, it hit the spot.

He walked to the couch and sat down near Kuroda, who still stared forward. Naruto grabbed the remote out of his hand and switched channels. Nothing that interested Naruto was on. He continued to switch channels even after he had gone through them all. He blamed the lack of entertainment on the fact the Kuroda didn't have nothing more than the advanced package of channels. He wondered if he could find anything to watch after getting those hundreds of channels he heard about.

But still it was T.V. "Man, I am glad about this, back up the mountains we don't have anything like this." Naruto voiced out, trying to start conversation. He only heard a groan come from Kuroda's mouth as a response. "Although, I do want to go back up the mountains. I do have to finish my training, and that old man probably doesn't have much longer."

As a response, Naruto heard barely understandable mumbling come out of Kuroda's mouth. He grinned inwardly at the fact he was making progress. "What was that Kuroda-san? I didn't hear you." Naruto asked the man. The man mumbled once more. "What?" Naruto asked again.

"I said-" Kuroda yelled out, breaking Naruto's eardrums. "I said, 'then why don't you hurry up and go out to make that friend!" Though Naruto was covering his bleeding ears and crouched up against a wall half a room away, the message was received easily. Naruto escalated the pressure on his ears as Kuroda walked up to him.

Kuroda stood before him, ventilating his breaths with tightened fists. Naruto could only watch as, with one swipe, Kuroda picked him up by his coat. Kuroda brought Naruto's face level to his own, so the blonde could see the anger in the black of his eyes. "You told me that you would go out and make friends, since I'm busy! Yet, you lay like a lump of flesh in my house and use my things as you will!" Kuroda shook Naruto to put the words in the blonde's head.

"Why haven't you left yet," Kuroda asked the blonde, with gritted teeth. Naruto stared at Kuroda for a second, before the man threatened to shake him again. He didn't like it when he did that. It felt like a bad carnival ride.

"I-I just though that you would get off work soon," Naruto stuttered out. Kuroda looked the blonde in the eyes and asked, "How busy have I been recently?"

"You- you only had today off." Naruto answered. Kuroda loosened his grip on the blonde. "Is one day enough to go up into the mountains?" He asked the boy. Naruto shook his head. It took at least a week depending on what mode of transportation one had.

Kuroda lowered the blonde, without letting him touch the ground yet. "I have another week of work to do after today, exactly as much as last week. As with the week after and so on. I am booked for a year Naruto. Do you have a year to wait?"

"No." Naruto answered simply. Kuroda anger was finally sated with finally getting through to Naruto. "Then?" Kuroda started Naruto off.

"Then I have to go outside." Naruto said, with a nervous grin. Kuroda set the boy down on the ground, gently this time. When the blonde's feet finally touched the ground, Kuroda turned around and sat on his couch and picked up the remote. "Good, now get out, this has been the most stressful day off I've ever had to live though." Kuroda didn't look over to Naruto as he started to periodically switch through the channels.

Naruto stood watching the man. There was a mild discomfort in his expression. Kuroda was kind of a big guy, a bit too big to be an artist. Getting yelled at a guy like him was like getting threatened. Although, Kuroda did threaten Naruto a little.

Naruto looked out the window, finding the day still bright and active. He wasn't going to be able to use the excuse of 'it's getting late'. Though, the more Naruto looked out that window, the more he anticipated going outside. He didn't know why but he felt that he might just have fun outside. A bright day, families would be out, kids his age would be playing. And most importantly, what lay before him was an entire city who didn't know him, or the tricks of his trade. He couldn't help it; he flashed the biggest grin he could that would show each of his teeth.

Kuroda noticed the expression on Naruto's face as the blonde passed in front of him to get to the door. It seemed as though Naruto was trying to hide it, but Kuroda could easily see that Naruto had planned a disaster for the outside world. Kuroda felt somehow responsible for whatever might happen from that point on.

But none of that mattered as the man on the game show he was watching had gotten the easiest question in the world. As the door closed behind Naruto, Kuroda shouted at the T.V., "The answer is Van Gogh! Van Gogh painted The Starry Night!" The man on the T.V. seemed to ponder the question, without the answer coming to him. Kuroda clenched his fists and repeated the answer over again, as if it would help the man.

"Van Gogh! Van Gogh! Van Gogh!" Kuroda yelled at the man, who was sweating under the question.

"Da Vinci?" the man on the show guessed.

Chapter End

* * *

There you have it, the first re-written chapter of Ordeals of a Yokai. It took me a while but I got it done.

I am asking you, the reader, who should be paired with Naruto in this story. Mostly because I can be indecisive at times. I have narrowed down the listing because I could only fit those characters in the series for now. The pairings are as follows:

NaruIno

NaruSaku

NaruTayu

I might start a poll for it, making it easier for me, but not many hit my profile page. Make it clear what the pairing you want is, or else I will be too lost to list it. I can be a very clueless person, espessially when I am away from school.

Review. Later.


	2. Ogre's rampage

Chapter 2, Ordeals of a Yokai

* * *

Ogre's Rampage

Naruto munched on his newly acquired hot dog as sat down in the park. Despite the fact that the boy he took it away from had already taken a good bite, Naruto was undeterred from eating the snack. As he finished, Naruto couldn't help but chuckle as he remembered the boy's face. Not many expect a hawk to swoop down on a person as they are eating, but the boy might as well had seen Naruto himself fly away with the hot dog. Of course Naruto's foxtail being on his transformed body probably had something to do with it. Besides his kind, there would be nothing else that can make that image.

Naruto reached into his pocket and took out a small ball he had also stolen, or borrowed depending on how much of a liar one is. He threw it into the air and lay down on the grass. He caught the ball as it fell down. He continued to play his little game while he heard some feet shuffling up to him.

"Hey you. Where did you get that ball?" came to his ears. Naruto sat up as the ball fell on his head. His eyes met with a few children, the same ones that he had taken the ball from. They had expression equal to that of the boy when he took the hot dog when he swooped down and had taken their ball in the middle of their game.

Naruto stood up with a smirk on his face and the ball in his hand. "This ball?" was the ignorance he feigned. The boy at the lead nodded, holding himself up as if ready to fight. Naruto threw the ball into the air and caught it. "Funny thing about this ball. It hit me directly on the head. There wasn't anybody who seemed have thrown it anywhere around me."

"Did a hawk with a fox tail fall anywhere near you?" the lead boy quizzed. "Yeah! Ken here got that stupid bird good in the ass!" One of the boys behind the lead chimed in. "Yeah that dumb animal didn't know what the hell hit him when he started falling to the ground because of Ken." said another boy. The led boy seemed happy under the praise.

Naruto now knew why he suddenly went into a nosedive mid flight. He noticed the boys give him odd looks. He guessed it was because of the evil eyes he was giving them. He quickly came up with a good scapegoat, "Little boys as old as you shouldn't curse." The boy who had cursed looked at Naruto, "You aren't our parents, you can't tell us what to do bastard."

Naruto gripped the ball in his hand hard out of anger. Though his expression changed into a slight smirk. Naruto looked at the ball inquisitively before he looked at the boys with a sly smirk. "I guess you want this back, huh?" he asked dramatically. All the boys nodded, except the one boy who said, "Yeah bastard-face." Though the insult was luke-warm at most with the added 'face', Naruto still gripped the ball in anger.

The blonde lifted the ball above his head and shot it forward. The ball flew from his hand at a perfect forty-five degrees angle. While the boys looked at the ball flying away in amazement, Naruto decided to bring them back down to earth. "You better hurry up and get that before that hawk-"

Just as Naruto mentioned the word, a brown hawk flew toward the ball and picked it out of the air. The hawk flew off with its new acquisition.

"Ken! Get your slingshot ready!" the boys called out in unison. The boys followed their leader as he ran to get up close with the hawk.

Meanwhile Naruto still watched the exact point that the hawk had snatched the ball out of the air. He was planning on getting it after turning into a hawk as soon as the boys left. He would follow the scent that he had put on it. The boys would get there and he would be waiting there as the hawk and take off with the ball, this time being careful of getting pelted by whatever the kid loaded in the slingshot.

He scratched the back of his head. Well, it didn't go as planned but it was a success, though he did want that ball.

Naruto turned with a sigh and walked on. He needed something to do. He knew he already had something to do, but the mischief that he was causing was too much fun to pass up. Every reaction, every exclamation of surprise, every scream of horror. Naruto smirked widely as he remembered that one prank. Only earlier that day, in the morning. It was almost as if it was set up by a deity.

He was walking from Kuroda's home to the park, hoping to make it his haunt. That was when he overheard a conversation between two girls. They were talking about nightmares. Some of them were over stereotypical. The nightmares were like something he would hear on T.V. Then a gold mine of information had struck his ears. One of the girls was talking about a dream with a giant spider.

It was a long time since he transformed into that, and he liked the reactions he got from every girl he ever used it on. He decided that he would do it, just once. After all, anything big is dangerous in the city. He took a quick peek behind himself to get a glimpse of the girl talking about the giant spider. He didn't need more than a quarter second to distinguish a stand out quality to her.

She had pink hair.

At the next corner Naruto turned, hoping that the girl wouldn't. His hopes weren't dashed. The girls continued walking forward, didn't even pay any mind to look down the street for any cars. When the buildings shielded him form their view, he crossed the street and took to an alley that followed their path. There he imagined the most gruesome, horrifying, and for good measure, slimy spider ever conceived. He grew the image to be the size of a shopping cart and transformed.

He started to hear foot steps in an intersection of alleyways. Mindless titter came to his ears. The spider clicked its mandibles. Inari was on his side today.

The talking became louder and the girls started to come upon the intersection. Naruto waited for the right timing then struck.

Naruto grinned when he remembered their screams. He was in his own little world as he walked forward, not paying any mind as to where he was going or what was in his way.

In his inattention, his foot got caught on something heavy and immobile. Still not paying any mind, Naruto's body continued forward and onto the ground.

While Naruto contemplated what had just happened, a sleepy voice came to his ear. "Hey watch where you are going, some people like to sleep here. Namely me." Naruto lifted himself off the ground and looked at what he had tripped over. What he found was a person, boy around his age, lying down with his eyes closed. The boy wore a plain white t-shirt with blackish-gray shorts. The boy's hair was tied up in a tail that stuck up from the back of his head. One would remark that it vaguely resembled a pineapple.

"Are you going to apologize?" came to Naruto's ears. Naruto looked down at the boy, finding the boy lying calmly with his eyes closed. Naruto felt stupid doing it, but he looked around, just in case somebody else was talking to him. "You were right the first time. Down here." came the voice again. Naruto looked down at the boy and said, "Then give me an indication that it is you and that somebody isn't trying to trick me with a dead body."

The boy opened his eyes and looked at Naruto. The boy's eyebrows were cocked oddly "That is a real pretty thought." he said sarcastically. Naruto scratched his chin and said, "I wouldn't put it passed some people." He kind of weirdly expected someone to prank him that way all his life.

The boy sat up and yawned. "Yeah, I guess you're right. There are just some sick people in this world." the boy said as he picked his ear. The boy then looked at Naruto and asked, "Now you mind telling me why you were so negligent to your surroundings and tripped over me?" Naruto scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "I was just reflecting on a prank that I pulled earlier." Naruto admitted, not allowing himself to divulge too much.

He had always had a history with pranks. He guessed it was because of his blood. But he learned to keep quiet about them after a certain boy told everyone about his disposition. Everyone caught on to him after that, and the reactions were never the same. As a strange side effect, he became the blame for every little thing that happened to anybody back in the mountains. Lost animals, broken glassware, stolen items, spilled milk. Any little thing caught him blame, no matter how far it diverged from reason. He wasn't some small timer who would hide the cookie jar. He was the one who made the giant graffiti on the school wall that blatantly read 'Suck it'. He was the one who made the traps that people fell into. They were just lucky he wasn't into punji sticks.

The boy smirked at Naruto. "Heh, is it a good one?" The boy seemed to enjoy the idea of a prank. The sleepiness left his eyes in the smallest degree. "If by good you mean sadistic? Hell yeah!" Naruto said without thinking. He had to come up with a sadistic story now that didn't involving him transforming. That is if the boy wanted him to continue.

"Of course I mean sadistic, what other kind of good prank is there?" asked the boy. Naruto inwardly grinned and frowned at the same. He loved to talk about pranks but he had to hurry and come up with a faux prank. Then something clicked in his head.

"Okay it all starts with a tape recorder and a tarantula that I found." Naruto began. He weaved a tale that had him recording a puppy whimpering. He stuffed the tape recorder and the tarantula into a box with holes pierced through it. The tape recorder was set to play the sound as he set the box and a 'free puppy' sign in the street. Thanks to a five-minute lapse in the tape he was able to find a nice witnessing point. After ten minutes of waiting a girl stopped at the box. Naruto really didn't stress the details of her looks. He dramatized just how happy she looked when she seen the box and how fast she lifted the lid.

Both Naruto and the boy chuckled at the end result. "That was a good one," the boy began, "a little immature, but good otherwise." The boy extended his hand to Naruto. "Nara Shikamaru." The boy introduced himself. Naruto received the hand, "Name's Uzumaki Naruto. And, hey, whatever gets the goat right?" The boy nodded in return.

"Well Naruto, thank you for that little bit. As thanks, you can hang out with me." Shikamaru told Naruto. Naruto cocked an eyebrow, "Why would I need permission?" Shikamaru looked at Naruto with half-lidded eyes and said, "I know a lot of annoying people. They don't like to leave me to my designs. Especially my mom. You might as well be god or have industrial strength glue to get her to stop nagging." Shikamaru chuckled under breath to his joke. Naruto chuckled with him.

"Yeah I see where you are coming from, I…uh…have this uncle that I am visiting and he nags like there is no tomorrow. 'Clean up the living room' 'Get out of the house' 'Don't use all the hot water' 'I am not your slave'." Naruto mocked Kuroda's voice as he spoke.

He gained a laugh from Shikamaru from his story. "He sounds so much like my mom. To a T when it comes to 'get out of the house'. Though sleeping under the sky is good." Shikamaru said as he looked up into the sky.

The boy fell back as Naruto watched the sky with him. After a while of looking up into the sky Naruto yawned. He lay back with the boy to watch the clouds. As he closed his eyes Naruto thought to himself that everyday can't have never ending excitement. As he started to fall asleep, his nose twitched at a scent that he hadn't smelled in a long time. Not since he went traveling up to the forest behind the base of the mountains. Naruto opened his eyes, to find a foot an inch away from his face. The foot stamped hard into his face, particularly his mouth and jumped off. Naruto was surprised that that his teeth didn't break. He looked off into the direction of where the foot pushed off his face to see a girl with long blonde hair quickly running away. Naruto was about to yell out at her when he felt a foot plant itself on his stomach and push off, as well as a second and a third. Naruto looked at the other retreating forms to see three men. The men were running after the girl who had stepped on his face. Naruto then caught the scent of the three men. They smelled like oni.

Naruto stood up and looked over to Shikamaru, who was undisturbed by the girl and the oni. He told the boy that he was going to chase after the men; the boy just waved him off.

* * *

"You yokai bastards!" yelled the blonde girl as she was cornered in an alley. She had hoped to be a faster runner than the oni before her, but that proved to be wrong after a couple of minutes running. They were able to stay up close with her, despite being oni, the slower and stupider kind of yokai.

The supposed leader of the oni in front of her looked surprised. Then the look of surprise turned into a sadistic smirk. "So girly, that little coffee pot dropped on me wasn't any accident, huh?" The oni to the right of the leader spoke up. "Y-you mean, boss, she knows we're oni?" The leader nodded, not taking his sight off the girl. "So, girly, I was thinkin' that mayb' that we would only make you pay for my coat and pants, but there can't be anybody in this piss poor town who knows we're oni. The princess will get mad at us. Since she went though such hard work to make our disguises."

"The local yakuza has a lot of power over the local government." said the flunky to the right. "Given that, if we can infiltrate it, we have a way to get people elected into office," Said the one to the left. "With that kind of power, we could get an oni to hold office. An' that, well, that would only be the beginnin'." Said the leader.

The smirk on the oni leader's face fell and he started to speak with a haggard breath. "But, yokai aren't very…loved about these parts. As you so expertly shown. With people knowing that we are yokai, well, it would mess up our plan pretty bad." As the oni man finished talking, he started upon the girl.

The girl stepped back, hoping to run away. Soon her back met the surface of a wall behind her. She forgot she was driven into a dead end. She wished something; some mystical force would come to save her. It was irony that brought Uzumaki Naruto, the kitsune yokai, to her.

Naruto leaped over the oni, landing right in front of the girl. He stood in a pose he copied from a kung fu movie that he had run across while watching T.V. He either came across cheesy or awesome depending on how much kung fu movies one has watched.

"Why the hell are you bastards chasing her?" Naruto yelled out to the oni trio. The leader of the group spoke up, "The little bitch got coffee all over my coat!" The leader pointed to the coat that hung a little damp from the coffee. The coat was wholly brown, the exact shade of coffee. "She got coffee all over your coffee brown coat?" Naruto asked in confusion. All three oni looked at the coat, before the leader looked up from his coat. "She also got it all over my pants!" the leader exclaimed.

"Your pants are brown too." Naruto pointed out. The three looked at the pants this time, then the one on the left spoke up. "Boss, he's right, you're wearing all brown. Why were we chasing her again?" The oni started to ponder this, leaving Naruto and the girl to themselves. Naruto turned to the girl and put out his hand. "Hey, my name is Uzumaki Naruto." The girl stared down at the hand and scoffed, but took it anyway. "Yamanaka Ino." She was detested by the fact he was a yokai. "Ino?" Naruto began, "that isn't a name that match looks as pretty as yours." The girl, Ino, blushed and said to Naruto, "Well, Ino is put into the names of all the first-borns in my family." Naruto scratched behind his head, nervous as to if he crossed the line or not. "I guess it isn't my place to say, is it?" Ino shook her head, "I can't tell you how many times I had rejected the name."

Their conversation, from Naruto's point of view, or flirting from Ino's point of view was cut off as a loud rumble came to their ears. The source of the rumble, the lackey on the right, looked over at his leader with his hands on his stomach and whined, "Hey, I'm hungry." The leader looked up with his hand resting on his chin, when his stomach growled also. "Yeah, same here. I guess we are going to have to get food." The leader sniffed the air. "Hey! I smell humans!" he exclaimed.

The oni trio looked at Naruto and Ino, and liked their lips. "Hey boss, when did those kids get there?" The flunky on the left asked. "I don't know," the leader said, "but, boys, we just struck pay dirt." The leader walked forward, the veil on his form falling with each step. His skin turned a light tan; his posture fell to that of a devolved ape. His hair grew to a monstrous mane, running along his back and covering the whole of his face. Then the oni's girth grew, suddenly making the oni fat. All the while it grew taller. At the ogre's shoulder lay a club, which had at least twice the girth of the oni. Its length was equal to that of the oni, a little over seven feet. Despite the fact that the oni's muscles grew little, it carried the club as if it carried air.

The oni brought the club over his head and got ready to bring it down. Ino turned to Naruto, and pleaded, "Hey you're a yokai too right? You got to do something!" Naruto turned his face to her and gave her a surprised look. "How-?" was all he got in before she grabbed his mouth and yelled in his ear. "No questions! Do something!"

At risk of another blood vessel popping scream, Naruto stepped forward. "Alright Ino-chan, step back, I don't know if this will shoot right. Ino stepped back, only to re-realize that she already had her back on the wall. She was glad Naruto didn't see her do that.

Naruto stepped forward, loosening his arms as he did. "Alright, get ready for a kitsune classic!" Naruto yelled out. He held out his right hand, its palm directed at the oni. He was a whole lot better if he had released one of his tails. He just didn't have the time right now.

"Fox fire!" Naruto bellowed.

Suddenly a warm sensation grew on his palm, warming it up. Naruto focused all the warmth to the small of his palm, and condensed it as the warmth continued to build. Slowly he felt the energy build up on his hand, the temperature growing hotter. As soon as the heat became too much to bear, Naruto released it.

Fire shot out of Naruto's palm, and collided with the wall directly to the right of them. Naruto looked at the wall, as did all the others. Soon though, the four others slowly turned their heads to Naruto, while the blonde still focused on the wall. He started to scratch behind his head and chuckle. He stuck out his palm again and yelled, "Fox fire!"

The fire shot directly up, barley hitting a hawk. Naruto stared up for a while to see it was the same hawk from earlier. Naruto vowed revenge under his breath as he refocused on the task at hand. A little disheartened, Naruto tried to reestablish his conviction as he yelled an old axiom in his head. If at first you don't succeed, keep trying until something blows up. He planned on exactly that.

Naruto shot the fox's fire so many times that clouds of dust started to accumulate around them. Naruto didn't stop until he was sure he hit one. Finally satisfied by the sheer number of blasts that he shot, Naruto stopped and let the dust clear. He then found that the oni were unharmed, and weren't hit in the slightest bit. Thoroughly pissed off, Naruto mimicked the stance of the great sayian warrior, and concentrated the energy to both his palms.

"Fox fire!" Naruto yelled out, until his throat felt like it was tearing.

He pushed his palms forward and released the energy. It shot forward, with the speed of a lightning bolt and stuck the oni leader. The bolt exploded on impact and sent the oni flying back to his flunkies. With a poof of smoke the leader turned back into a human at the last minute. Naruto was perplexed, as usually getting knocked out broke the seal, not remade it.

Naruto turned around to Ino and rested his hands behind his head. "I guess we should call the cops-." Naruto paused when he realized that Ino was already on the phone with them. She spun a story of how a cute and innocent girl was about to be mugged by some petty thieves, when, as she was about to be taken advantage of, a man came and knocked the thieves out. To Naruto's grace, she was pouring on the dramatics thick. She made him sound like a godly hero. It really expanded his ego. As she closed the phone after finishing up, she looked at Naruto, who was giving her a look. Her face reddened under his gaze. She was about to ask him why he was looking at her, when he said, "Question time."

She cocked her eyebrows in confusion. Naruto held up one finger and asked, "How did you know I was a yokai?" Stared blankly for a second, before answering, "Uh…I am a psychic. I knew by your aura that you were a yokai." She tried to make it sound as modest as she could. Even though, Naruto's eyes lit up. "You're a psychic? I never met a psychic before-!" Naruto went on asking numerous questions to Ino. At the last question of the quiz, Ino yelled out the answer in anger. "You're a sicko! But, yes, I could do that with enough training," she ended sheepishly. Her face went red when Naruto said 'sweet' with drool coming out of his mouth.

"Sweet." Came from one of the oni on the ground. Naruto walked over and struck him on the head. The oni whispered out 'sweet' once more before falling back into unconsciousness. As Naruto stood back up, he hoped the authorities would come soon.

* * *

Naruto sat waiting for the cops, the oni arranged around him for convenience. They had woken up several times each, the leader waking up the most. Naruto was glad that the oni were dumb and shouted out where they were each time they woke up. At the same time he was glad that oni were heavy sleepers, or else he would be knocking them out in a mock of the whack-a-mole game.

Thirty knuckle bruising minutes passed before the authorities arrived. They questioned the two half-heartedly. The only thing they really produced from it was a bit of anger from Naruto each time they remarked Ino as his girlfriend. Ino blushed each time; Naruto guessed it was from embarrassment. After half-heartedly questioning them, they half-heartedly took the oni away. Naruto waved off the cops while mocking them under his breath. He wasn't going to say anything out loud and get in trouble.

After the cops had left, Naruto and Ino strolled back to the park, to where Naruto had left Shikamaru lying. Naruto, despite not knowing the boy beyond that day, wasn't at all surprised to find that he had not left the spot where he was lying before. Naruto was about to introduce Ino to Shikamaru, for her to greet him and him to grunt back. Naruto found out they went to the same school. After Naruto told Shikamaru what happened, minus all the mystical happenings, he said that he was going home.

Naruto offered a hand to Shikamaru, who shook it in return. He offered the hand to Ino, who hugged him instead. She told him to come by the school, after which she told him the address.

With little more to do, they each went to their respective houses, the exception Shikamaru, who still lay on the grass of the park.

Chapter End

* * *

There you have it, The second re-written chapter of Ordeals of a yokai. I hope you liked it.

The choice for pairings are still as stands.

NaruIno

NaruSaku

NaruTayu

Review the story. Later.


	3. Introduce the Others

Ordeals of a Yokai ch 3

Before you go on to the story. If you are on who read the original chapters before reading this, please go back to the first chapter. They have been re-written and, in my opinion, are better. The second chapter as well. So please read them first.

* * *

Introduce the Others

Naruto glared down Kuroda as he somehow brought a bag of confetti out of nowhere and started to prance around the house, throwing the paper with reckless abandon. Naruto had only told the man that he would be leaving the apartment. He didn't say more than that. The man acted as if he had just been granted a desired wish. Naruto thought on the subject, that might have been true.

"Kuroda-san, can you-," Naruto started before he had to rub out the confetti that was accumulating in his hair. Naruto clenched his teeth as tried to get the man's attention again. "I am only leaving the house for a few hours," he said glaring down the man.

Naruto was taken back when the grown man squealed like a school girl. Naruto was even more startled when the man came up to him and lifted him off the ground by his arms. "Thank god you met someone brat! I feared that when you failed yesterday, you would be back here sitting on my couch!" the older man said. Naruto let go of the fact that the man said 'when' instead of 'if'. "What is the big deal, you catching up on 'private time' while I am gone?" the blonde mocked.

Naruto quickly found himself face first on the ground with a lump on his head. A foot pressed itself against his back. "You brat! What I do on my own time is my own business," the older man said, then immediately regretted. Kuroda didn't fully know what Naruto said with his voice muffled against the floor, but is sounded very much like 'so you are'. Kuroda pushed his foot more into the blonde's back. "No, because I finally get some peace and quiet for a change! And the house will finally stay clean."

Naruto lifted up his head, spitting out a piece of confetti that was on the floor out of his mouth. He glared up as the older man and said, "You know you keep me pinned down like this and I won't-." The foot on Naruto's back was swiftly removed. Naruto inwardly grinned, he knew how to have his way with the man now. Threats here and there about not leaving the house, and he can have whatever he wanted. To him, that meant enough ramen to kill a buffalo with.

Naruto got up on his feet and looked at the man. "You're an ass," the blonde said simply before walking past the man to the door. He was about to leave when he heard the man call out, "Naruto, wait!" The blonde turned to the man, waiting for him to say something. When the man said, "Let me savor the moment," Naruto stuck out his tongue and flipped the man off.

The man let out a content sigh after the door closed. He turned away from it, letting out another sigh before a grin was found on his face. Finally Naruto was gone, he had the house to himself. That would finally allow him enough time to watch T.V. and paint. Not only that but he finally had a clean floor that would stay clean.

Kuroda looked at the floor, wanting to revel in the cleanliness. Kuroda didn't see his floor, in its place though, was piles of confetti.

* * *

Naruto arrived at Ino's and Shikamaru's school on his bike/ scooter(A/N_ I want to say moped, but I don't think that is what it is_) just as the final bell rang. Naruto congratulated himself on the minor achievement. He got off his bike and stood just on the sidewalk where the main door led to, waiting to sight them. As the other kids walked and pushed passed him, Naruto felt very much like a boat on the sea during the storm. One kid even kneed him while walking past, and was gone before Naruto could get any revenge.

It was lucky of the boy as Naruto's idea of revenge might have been too much for him. Also, he wasn't sure how he could hide a pit in the middle of a sidewalk, as covering it with leaves would only rouse the kid's suspicions. While Naruto contemplated revenge, he thought he heard his name get called. He looked around to still see a swarm of kids around him and brushed it off as his imagination. He continued to contemplate revenge as someone snuck upon him.

"Naruto! How are you!" there was a pause. "Uh," the voice began, "what is with the serious face?" Naruto looked up to see Ino in front of him, with Shikamaru and others he didn't know behind her. He looked back at her and started to scratch the back of his head. Thinking on his feet, he came up with a scapegoat. "I got ripped off earlier by this old dude."

One of the two he didn't know spoke up, "Was it that guy who says he is giving you some ero-manga only to give you some random manga from the book store?" Naruto looked at the boy who said it. The boy was considerably big for his age. Not only that but wore something on his head that looked like panties. In the boy's hand was a bag of chips. Naruto looked the boy straight in the eye and said, "No, nothing like that."

The big boy flushed in embarrassment as the girl next to him chastised him. "God, Choji, you pervert." Naruto got a look at the girl, finding her hair pink. Naruto chuckled to himself in remembrance. He knew this was the girl from yesterday, and he wanted to make sure he got at least a chill down her spine.

"No, that wasn't it." Naruto said nonchalantly. "He was going to let me get a peek at this rare species of lizard, for just the money in my pocket. I give him some, get a peek, and then all there is in there is a spider. Then he runs off laughing."

Naruto took a peek of the girl reaction, hoping to at least see her shiver. He saw a different reaction, anger. Naruto was a little confused about what was going on and was about to ask when she said, "God dammit! I am tired of hearing about spiders! That is all I heard about yesterday from my mom! Giant spider this, giant spider that! Spider, spider, spider! Now she doesn't even want to go outside!"

Ino then got in on it, "Sakura you're one to talk. Who was calling my house off the hook yesterday, only to complain about your mom complaining about spiders." Sakura put her head down slightly. Then Ino added, "And you're not making a good impression on Naruto." Sakura picked her head up quickly and waved nervously at Naruto, he waved back. Ino stepped back and introduced her. "Naruto, this is Sakura aka forehead aka bubble gum hair." Naruto scratched the top of his head, "Why do you call her forehead?" Ino pointed to Sakura's forehead, much to the distain of the pink-haired girl. Naruto pulled his goggles off his head and pointed to his forehead. Ino's expression deadpanned, "Can't you see, it is huge!" Naruto just shook his head and said, "I really don't see it."

Ino sighed and looked to Sakura, "Forehead this is Naruto." Sakura waved again, with a smile on her face. Shikamaru walked up to the round boy and said, "Naruto, this is Choji, Choji this is Naruto."

"Now that introductions are done, it is time to tell you the story of how Naruto save-" Ino started before Sakura interrupted her. "Ino, I already heard that story a thousand times already. You told the entire school by now."

Choji pointed to himself, "I don't think I heard it yet." Sakura dropped her head as Ino dived into her story.

* * *

White-eyes watched Naruto from the distance. Their owner stood, unmoving as she stared at the kitsune. The aura was unmistakable; it was the son of the great king. The girl felt her legs shake as she stared. She was slowly going limp as she seen the ghost in front of her. The linage of the Kyūbi was thought to have been long gone. The great king only had one child before the nine forsaken ones came and ended his reign. The most powerful of kitsune, his line was thought to be gone from the face of the earth. Now here was the one person that could officially take over for the king. Her heart quaked. Her superior would reward her greatly for finding him.

"Hinata, what happened? You going to give me that sandwich you were talking about?" came a voice to her side. She turned to the black hair youth before her. "Kiba, I might be wrong, so, I want you to catch the scent of that boy over there." She asked as she pointed to Naruto. Kiba to a sniff of the air, "Yeah, that is the smell of a kitsune. I thought you were the only one posted here." Hinata held a critical look and said simply, "I am."

"Ah," Kiba started, "It is a turf war then? Alright, 2nd rank inu yokai, Kiba, will muscle the intruder out." Hinata blinked for a second, then from behind her came another voice. "And 2nd rank konchuu [1] yokai, Shino, will assist." With that, another black haired youth walked passed Hinata and headed toward Naruto.

Hinata quickly grabbed the hands of the two and retreated. "Stupid dog and bug! Do you know who that is?" Kiba, still being dragged by Hinata, said, "An intruder, right? By the way you're viciously pulling me away, or my arm off, a powerful one at that."

Hinata started flailing her arms at her sides, "Yes, powerful, but that isn't that! If I am sensing this right, he is also royalty! You don't go and attack royalty!" Kiba looked at her for a second and said, "Do you have to go through one of those systems to attack them? You kitsune are really bad when it comes to permission." Hinata stamped her foot on the ground, "Stupid dog! No, you never attack royalty. Especially when that royalty is supposedly dead!"

"If he is supposed to be dead, then why is he standing right there, talking to those people?" Kiba retorted. Hinata shook her head, "No! We thought he was dead, but I guess we were wrong!" Kiba plugged his ears, "Alright, I get it, so what about him?"

Hinata looked at Kiba with intent in her eyes. "We have to follow him."

* * *

"Who was that girl yelling?" Naruto asked with his hands over his ears. "Oh, that is a new student, Hinata. She came here almost a week ago. We don't know her." Said Shikamaru. Naruto scratched the top of his head, "Oh, okay… so who isn't dead?" Naruto asked. Everyone else shrugged. After a second though, Shikamaru said, "Must have been one heck of a funeral."

A moment of silence passed over the group, before Sakura spoke up. "Hey Naruto, where are you from, I never seen you here before." Naruto looked up at her and scratched the back of his head. "I am from the Oinari mountains."

"Really?" Choji began, "I heard that that place is haunted by spirits. You know, like oni and all that." Naruto shook his head, it being a half truth, there weren't any oni in the Oinari mountains. Although, he might count as a haunting spirit, he knew the whole village would agree.

"Yeah, Choji, jeez, you're as superstitious as Ino. There is no such thing as oni. They are only fairy tales that are told by bored parents." Sakura scolded the boy, though her tone was light. Choji scratched the back of his head as Naruto shook his head again. "No, the place does have spirits." Naruto said, with Sakura giving him an incredulous look. "I, well, I've never seen it. But several of the children and adults around there have fallen into the traps of this thing. It would dig pit out of nowhere, or maybe appear before some people with a horridly grotesque form, or maybe even light your house on fire a couple of times." Naruto inwardly smirked at some of his earlier pranks. "A few villagers have gotten to call it monster." He noticed that he had the attention of the children in front of him.

"Do you know what it is?" said Sakura, her eyes going against what she had said earlier. Naruto smirked at being the center of attention. "Well despite what the villagers call it, it isn't an oni. You can ask our village elder for that information. What we have in our village is something different. Not oni, not tanuki, but instead, a kitsune!"

Sakura and Choji shared surprised expressions. Ino wasn't surprised because she knew who Naruto was talking about, she was at least that smart. Shikamaru really didn't care.

* * *

A young boy with a glaring expression wandered up behind a girl with white eyes. He was sick of her scent around his turf. He was around these parts before the kitsune decided to take up shop. All in all he didn't care all that much that she was there, but it was her scent coupled with the inu and the konchuu that made it unbearable.

"Kitsune," the boy started with a monotone voice, "I told you to haunt somewhere else. I chose this place and you won't make me leave." Hinata spun around to meet the boy face to face. "I walk where I want oni, and where I want is here. You cannot move my team out of here, it is crucial to us kitsune," Hinata finished with a glare and a dangerous tone.

The boy just stepped up closer to the girl and said with a glare, "Then cover up your scent. Not only that but the scent of the rest of your team. Also, I couldn't care less about what your society wants as long as it doesn't get in the way of mine." With that the boy stepped back and was about to walk away when Kiba decided to act.

Slowly he started to let his power give away, allowing the boy to know just how much power he had. But he was careful to not alert the other kitsune just off in the distance. He wasn't that hotheaded. The boy stopped and seemed to consider Kiba's power. Kiba had to admit that despite not giving off his full power, he had a substantial amount of it.

The boy turned around and glared at Kiba. He didn't let off any power, he didn't bare his teeth, and he didn't even wrinkle his nose. He just glared. And though the boy was only doing that, Kiba fell to the ground like a floating rock caught by gravity.

The boy walked up to Kiba and grabbed him by the collar. "Inu, if I were you, I wouldn't go about doing that. I can get an idea of your power just by smelling you. And it smells like," the boy paused to sniff the air, trying to make a point. But his nose got caught on something. He tuned around and sniffed the air again. The smell it was that of a kitsune. But it wasn't Hinata, this one was far above her limit on power. He sniffed again, this time to locate it. The smell came from the boy in the orange track suit with goggles on his head.

The boy glared, this was the kitsune that must have subdued his sister's subordinates yesterday. It was this kisune's fault that he had to put up bail for those idiots. He lost a major portion of his rainy day savings because of that. But more importantly, it was this kitsune's fault that his sister wouldn't stop yelling yesterday. He didn't get a wink of sleep because of this idiot. He didn't think as he walked up to the boy.

* * *

"You, what is your name?" a voice came to Naruto's ears. From behind the others he saw a boy with black hair and beady eyes glare at him. Immediately Sakura's expression seemed to light up. Ino's seemed to darken. "Sasuke!" Sakura almost screamed out. Naruto's expression changed to confusion as he seen the girls' expressions change.

"Goggles, I asked for your name." The boy, Sasuke, commanded. Naruto scratched the back of his head and said, "Uh, Naruto. Why does that matter?" Sasuke stared at Naruto for a while, before looking around to his company. His eyes resting on Naruto again, he spoke, "I challenge you."

Naruto and the rest immediately exhibited shocked faces. Naruto glared at the boy and asked simply, "Why?" The boy seemed to just relax his muscles to Shikamaru, Sakura, and Choji. Although, Naruto and Ino felt something different. The boy suddenly reeked of oni and the very aura around him was like that of fog. Then the boy answered, though it might have only been to the benefit to the three who didn't feel what Sasuke released. "You made my sister mad yesterday, I want revenge on her behalf," came from the boy's lips.

Naruto heard Choji whisper, "Naruto, you dog." He would clear it up with the boy later. "I don't know what you're talking about, but, fine, where and when?" Naruto didn't want to back down on a challenge, it didn't fair well with him in his mind. In any event, the boy was strong, stronger than those oni he had beat up yesterday.

"Three hours from now, as for the location, I think you can find me," Sasuke said as he allowed his aura to spike again. With his point followed through, the boy turned and left, leaving behind three confused children, a disgusted psychic, and one on-edge kitsune.

"N-Naruto?" came to the kitsune's ears. He turned to find that Sakura was the one who addressed him. She looked somewhat cross as she looked in a different direction. "How do you know Sasuke?" she asked. Naruto shook his head, "I don't."

"You're not actually going to accept? Are you?" came Ino's enraged voice. Naruto turned to her and scratched the back of his head. "I have to, I was challenged," he said simply. Before anyone could say anything else, Naruto wedged in a diversion. "Hey, you guys know anything around here to pass the time?"

Choji's and Shikamaru's eyes lit up. Choji quickly grabbed Naruto's sleeve and pulled him away from the prying eyes of the girls. "Naruto, I bet they don't have arcades up in the mountains. Or manga. Or pizza!" Choji shouted as he pulled Naruto along with Shikamaru close behind, and the girls trying to catch up.

* * *

Naruto patted his stomach as he ate the last bit of pizza slice he had. He stuffed his hand into his pocket and sorted through the money that was left from what he had borrowed from Kuroda earlier. The term borrowed used loosely. He had enough from buying that manga to continue playing at the arcades.

He vowed to himself that he would beat that shooting game that had taken away five bucks from him. He could swear it was cheating. The enemies only shot him once to kill him and with them it took multiple hits. The gun had an oblong shape that was not fit for human hands, and the sensor must have been broken because, even though his aim was right on, the shots always veered off onto a different direction.

It didn't help his case that Shikamaru didn't have one problem with the game and only spent one credit to beat it.

Naruto was about to take the second shot at the game when a moment later Choji came upon him. "Naruto look at the clock." The blond looked up to find that it was only thirty minutes until that Sasuke character expected him. Naruto let out a sigh, looks like he had to wait another time to beat the crap out of that game.

"So what did you do to his sister?" came to Naruto's ears. Naruto turned to see Choji giving him the 'do not spare any of the juicy details' look. Naruto let out another sigh, he knew his explanation wouldn't be accepted by the plump boy. "I have not the slightest idea."

Choji's face slipped into disappointment, as Naruto guessed, and the boy tried to prod further. "Now Naruto, we might have only met today, but you can tell me. Did you feel her up?" Choji's face faulted when Naruto shook his head. "Did you break her heart on a date?" Choji continued. Naruto shook his head again and Choji's face somehow found a way to contort into further disappointment. "At least tell me that you kissed her in front of him." Choji seemed to have found a way to make to most depressing face on earth when Naruto shook his head for what he hoped was the final time.

Naruto turned to walk away, the appointment with the oni only drawing closer. Naruto heard a gasp behind him that sounded as if someone made an important discovery. "You got her pregnant!"

"No Choji! I told you I don't know!" Naruto yelled out. Naruto looked back to see that Choji was gone, and that a woman and a young man had taken his place. He stared at them for a bit while his face went slightly red in embarrassment. "What are you looking at brat?" said the woman. She sounded remarkably like Choji.

Naruto continued on walking, much to the confusion to the two.

Naruto walked two blocks down from the shopping arcade that held the book shop, pizzaria, and arcade; to find his bike in front of the school still. Naruto was almost araid for his bike when they had left it earlier. Finally, he had made his way to his bike when a shrill voice came to his ears. "Naruto! You're not actually planning to fight that oni, are you?" Naruto turned to see that it was Ino who had called him out. As she walked up to him, all he could say was that he was challenged. "So what, this is one whole testosterone filled, lack brained, fight for honor?" she said, her tone seething.

"So what am I supposed to do, back down, let think he won without even humoring the idea that I might come out on top? Besides, honor is dead in this day and age." Naruto countered her. Ino pinched the bridge of her nose, "You're not making sense to me." Naruto sat on his bike and revved it after turning his key. "Nor are you to me." He began, "Besides, I won't die, I am a Kyūbi no Kitsune."

Ino tensed up, she knew he was a yokai but not one that powerful. "Of course I don't have all my powers, being born one, but I would hardly die." He gave her a big grin as another voice called him out, this time it was the pink-haired girl. "You're not actually going to fight Sasuke-kun are you?" Naruto thought honorifics among the young were dead, since he never heard anyone among his age group use it to anyone among them. This Sasuke must have a reputation at their school. That was the only reason that came to his mind that she would use an honorific.

"I was called out Sakura-chan," he decided to use the honorific that shows respect to girls his age, "and I can't just sit idly by, making him think I am too frightened to even show up."

"Then can I go with you?" she pleaded. Naruto considered letting her before he got an idea as to what the fight might devolve into. A giant ogre fighting a fox with nine tails. That would be hard to explain after it was over.

"No," he said simply, with a little finality to make sure she didn't try to get more out of him. As soon as she started to open her mouth, another pleading question on her tongue, Naruto revved his bike again and yelled, "Later Sakura-chan, Ino-chan!"

With that he drove off.

Chapter End

* * *

Chapter three of Ordeals of a Yokai is done. I feel much better about the series now that I did this. Make sure that if you read chapters one and two when it was first printed that you re-read them now that they are re-written.

[1] Konchuu - bug. Nothing really more.

Again I will list the choice for pairings, because I am indecisive.

NaruIno

NaruSaku

NaruTayu

Review the story. Later.


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